Roses from the Heart Bonnet Exhibition and the Thomas Francis Meagher Exhibition

Waterford Women’s Centre presents a rich and extensive exhibition highlighting Waterford city and county women’s stories through photographs and written narrative. This exhibition represents many years of collaboration between Andrew Kelly, Kilmacthomas and Waterford Women’s Centre’s management members Ann Fitzgerald.It is an extensive body of work which is ongoing and continuously growing.The collection represents Waterford women from all areas of life who made valuable contributions to Waterford Society. Many of the women had been written out of history.

This year’s exhibition includes a very interesting and heart wrenching selection of Waterford Women sent to Van Damien’s Land, aboard the Australasia in 1849 from Trudy Cowley’s book “A Drift of Derwent Ducks”.Women who were tried and convicted, were given a few months moral and technical training in Grangegorman, Dublin, before being transported to Van Dieman’s Land. They worked as servants in free settler's houses or were sent to one of the five female factories, women's workhouse prisons, in Van Diemen's Land. These factories housed only female convicts and were designed as places of labour and hire as well as places of punishment. These establishments were referred to as factories, houses of correction and penitentiaries.

This exhibition will be in the library from Tuesday the 26th of February to the 23rd of March including International Women’s day 8th of March.